Summer Missionary Profile: Kyle Limburg

Kyle Limburg is a sophomore at Cleveland State Community College. He is serving with Ocoee Outreach in Cleveland, TN.

What is your major?

History/Education

Three things you can’t live without?

My friends, my tool-belt, and my coffee.

Three things you miss most?

I think what I miss most is my free time with friends and being able to do “summer stuff.” We get evenings off, but by the time we get home most days it’s time to leave again and go to the community dinners or block parties we do with the teams we’re working with for that week; I definitely miss my free time.

Best moment so far?

I think the best moment of my summer so far was during week 3. I was working with a local church from Cleveland, called Clingan Ridge Baptist. On our first day on the site we knew we had a ton of work to do just to be able to get on the roof. The house was covered with brush and trees that had grown up over time. But immediately when we got there I and another guy on my team knocked on the door to introduce ourselves to the homeowners. So we did, but eventually he came out and sat outside to just see what we were doing. I approached him with a simple question, “Are you from here in Cleveland?” From then on we began a conversation that lasted over an hour. The homeowner began to tell me hard times from his past and really opened up his heart with me. What I think was so cool about it was I was just simply asking a question and boom. All of a sudden he opened up his heart solely because I was just willing to listen. It was a very cool moment for me as it was the first time I’ve encountered a homeowner with that sort of openness and transparency.

Most difficult moment so far?

My most difficult moment so far was a couple of weeks ago. I had a group that was very inexperienced with roofing. Over the past two summers I have gained a lot of knowledge about roofing and construction in general. Our job as missionaries is just to be a liaison and a spiritual leader for our teams and homeowners. The construction is not our main job; it’s the team’s job and their crew chief. Well, like I said, they were extremely inexperienced as far as the work goes. So basically I was the most knowledgeable roofer on the team. Needless to say it was a pretty stressful week for me on top of being super tired from weeks past. So I really had to suck it up and be a construction chief and the spiritual leader I needed to be for my team all on top of being exhausted so that was a very challenging week.

A typical day for you looks like…

A typical day for me is waking up around 6 o’clock and taking a shower and drink some coffee. Then I’ll leave my house and go fill up my water coolers for my team, and then I will drive to wherever I am meeting my team. Whether it’s at the hotel where they are staying or at the site. From then we work from 7:30 in the morning until around 11:30. At 11:30 we have our lunch runners bring us lunch and we take a break for a while and then I will lead my team in a devotion just to keep our minds spiritually sharp. After that we get back to work usually until around 3-4 o’clock. Then I’ll go home get cleaned up and rest until around 5. Then we eat dinner with our teams wherever the church that is sponsoring for us that week. Then usually a couple nights a week, our teams will do block parties out in the community. So we will go help with that. I usually get home around 9 o’clock. Sometimes maybe later, sometimes maybe earlier it just depends on what we have going on. Finally I go to bed. Wake up the next morning and do it again.

How can we pray for you?

If you can just please pray for spiritual strength for me. With what I do as a summer missionary it can get very exhausting and it can become very easy to get complacent and caught up in how tired I am and ready to get home. I just really want to be aware of what God’s doing around me in others or in my own heart. So sometimes it’s very easy for me to zoom over things or really miss opportunities to witness to others.

What fast food do you miss the most?

Well I still live in my hometown in Cleveland so I can pretty much eat what I want to if I have time. But I definitely miss eating our hometown pizza place called Gabriel’s. During school I’m usually there at least once a week. But during the summer, not so much.

What is the purpose of your mission trip?

The purpose of what I do here in my hometown of Cleveland is to reach the lost people of my own city with the love and the story of Jesus Christ. Yes, we do construction projects, like roofs, paint sites, ramps, bible clubs, but that is just the way that we show the love of Christ to these people. Yes some of the homeowners we encounter might have a relationship with Jesus and that is awesome, but then it will be my job and our job as the body of Christ to encourage them and be there with them by doing a construction project on their house. But all in all, the main purpose is Jesus. That’s it. I want people to know and realize the love that he showed on the cross for me and for them as well. I want to people to come to know Christ and believe he died for them. So that they can follow God’s plan for their lives and grow in spiritual maturity through God’s word.